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REVIEW: WARCRAFT

Warcraft brings us the widely popular PC game to a live-action film. It is apparent, through the acting and visual effects, that Warcraft lacked what it takes to be an entertaining film.

Warcraft tells about the ongoing fights between both humans and Orcs. As the Orcs world is being destroyed, they decide to come through a passage and enter our world. The Orcs want our land for their own, but it is the humans of Azeroth, who try to keep the fighting with Orcs from turning into a full fledge war. Let it be known, I have never played, nor have I ever been interested in the “world” of Warcraft. I looked forward to watching this film because, A: I love the director, Duncan Jones and B: I love action films. But as I watched Warcraft in its entirety, I became bored. The further the story continued, the further I sank into my chair, looking for one shred of hope for this film.

Our main Orc character, Durotan (Toby Kebbell), plays a great part in the film. As the fighting between the Orcs and the humans escalates, Durotan decides to rebel against his ruler. The Orcs in this film were created through motion capture, and it is done beautifully. Jones made sure that these creatures were not only pleasing to the eye, but looked life-like. However, not all the special effects came off without a hitch. There are moments when the CGI looks like something created in the early 2000.

But even with the faults of the CGI, nothing was more disappointing than the actors playing the “humans” throughout the film. The main human character is Anduin (Travis Fimmel), a sort of protector of the king. The script did everything it could to make this soldier connect with the audience, hoping that we would care about him. But in reality, the characters, not only Anduin, came off hallow. Nothing in this film made me care for these humans. There is one part when Anduin, Garona (Paula Patton), and Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer), have a “Breakfast Club” moment. They sit around, and though they appear strong, they spill their true emotions to one another. But even in that moment, I expected more from a scene with such key character development. As I speak about these poorly portrayed characters, I refuse to discuss the portrayal of Medivh (Ben Foster) in this film. It was probably one of the worst cases of acting I have ever seen on screen. Even thinking about it makes my head hurt.

I hoped that this film would at least have some great action sequences. For me, the action in this film wasn’t a redeeming quality to make up for the lack of story and plot. Because once again, the actors did a horrible job conveying emotion. I don’t mean for them to say “I feel angry!” “I feel sad!” “Oh, why did I have to kill you?!” For me, the beauty of film is being able to convey your emotion without lines of dialogue.

I will give this film credit and say that this was a monster to have made. But Jones, and his infinite knowledge of directing, could not perform miracles. I expect those of you who play World of Warcraft, to appreciate it to an extent. But then again, aren’t you, the fans, the hardest people to please?